A Little Rusty

Last evening’s class went very nicely, however, I really felt like I needed to ovecome some “rust” after a few weeks of not teaching (because of interruptions in the schedule). For one, I forgot to include our little ritual gesture of marking our foreheads, lips, and hearts with the sign of the Cross at the start of class! Didn’t think about it till I got home and was reviewing in my mind how the class […]

Ten Commandments

It feels as though I have not taught my 4th graders for a few weeks now, because of guest speakers and Presidents’ Days, etc. Tonight, that all changes as I get back to the basics with my li’l ones and focus on the Ten Commandments one last time! As you may recall, back in January, we made a DVD of the kids doing mini-presentations on the Ten Commandments. For tonight’s class, I put together the […]

4th Graders on the Red Carpet

Last night was the successful premiere of the Ten Commandments DVD that my 4th graders filmed over the past few weeks! It opened to an audience of about 8-9 parents who visited my classroom as part of the Open House. The parents enjoyed watching their little stars on the big screen and the kids were tickled to see themselves. All in all, it was very successful. I made a copy of the DVD for each […]

Scripts for Ten Commandments Video Presentations

As I mentioned yesterday, I plan to videotape my students doing brief presentations/demonstrations on the Ten Commandments and then showing the video to the parents who attend the Open House later this month. Here are the scripts that I’ve prepared: Ten Commandments Video Scripts These scripts are adaptations of the Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills that I did with my Confirmation class last year. Some of the adaptations were to make the activities more appropriate for 4th […]

Lights! Camera! Action!

I’ve decided that I’m going to produce a video starring my fourth-grade class. Later this month, we have an open house for parents to attend part of their children’s class. I thought it would be a nice idea to film the students over the next couple of weeks as they do mini-demonstrations on the Ten Commandments and then show the video to the parents who attend the open house. Last year, I put together Two-Minute Drills for […]

A Case of the Sixth Commandment Giggles

On Monday evening, I had a cozy little group of 7 students, since 3 were rehearsing for the Living Stations. I used this opportunity to continue our exploration of the Ten Commandments, looking at real-life examples of how to live out the spirit of each of the Commandments. It turned out to be a very nice evening except for one thing: the boys (3 of 4) developed a severe case of the Sixth Commandment giggles. […]

A Mixed Bag

So last evening’s class was kind of a mixed bag. The main focus was on the “Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills” that I wrote about yesterday. Here’s the scoop: All ten students were present and in good spirits. During opening prayer, one of the boys prayed for Brian Campbell, Blackhawks’ defenseman, who suffered a broken collar bone and cracked ribs as a result of a vicious hit by Alex Ovechkin on Sunday. I thought that was […]

Ten Commandments – Two-Minute Drills

I’m pretty excited about this one! I want to do something to reinforce the Ten Commandments as we move in to this last unit on Morality. I also want to place more responsibility on the kids now that they are confirmed, so that they sense a difference between how I taught them before Confirmation and how they are learning now. As a result, I’ve come up with something I call The Ten Commandments Two-Minute Drills! […]

Confirmation Exam Results

I finally got a chance to correct the Confirmation exams that my students took on Monday evening and I was generally pleased. They all passed! 4 students earned scores of 100+ (extra credit section on the Nicene Creed allows them to score over 100 pts) 3 were in the 80s and 90s 2 were in the 70s 1 took the exam with the DRE on Tuesday because he could not attend Monday night…I’ll have to […]

Not Bad!

Our experience of playing a Jeopardy-like review was not bad at all last night. Of course, games can rile kids up so we were walking a fine line between having fun and laying down the law last night. However, overall, I’d have to say that fifty 8th graders in one room behaved pretty well! The nice thing was that they did a pretty good job of answering the questions. All of us were pleased that […]

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